The present invention relates to the use of low-molecular-weight heparins for the prevention and treatment of trauma of the central nervous system and in particular of spinal, cranial or craniospinal trauma.
The invention also relates to the use of low-molecular-weight heparins for the preparation of a medicament for the prevention and treatment of trauma of the central nervous system and in particular of spinal, cranial or craniospinal trauma.
Standard heparin is a sulphated polysaccharide having an average molecular weight of 12,000-15,000 daltons which is isolated from bovine, ovine and porcine intestinal mucous membranes. Heparin is clinically used for the prevention and treatment of thromboembolic disorders but sometimes causes haemorrhages.
Over the past ten years, heparin has been gradually replaced by low-molecular-weight heparins which no longer exhibit or which exhibit to a lesser degree the disadvantage of causing bleeding and which now require only one injection per day instead of 2 to 3 injections per day for standard heparin. These low-molecular-weight heparins are prepared in particular by fractionation, controlled depolymerization of heparin or by chemical synthesis. They have an anti-Xa activity/anti-IIa activity ratio greater than 2.
It has now been found that low-molecular-weight heparins reduce the size of the trauma of the central nervous system and in particular of spinal, cranial or craniospinal trauma.
Traumas of the central nervous system (SNC trauma or neurotrauma) relate to trauma of the brain (cerebral trauma) and traumas of the spinal cord (medullary trauma). They are the consequence of a shock at the level of the central nervous system (car, motorbike, skiing or swimming-pool accident and the like) which is often but not always accompanied by fractures. The consequences of these traumas are neurological disorders such as epilepsy, impairment of consciousness, motor problems, amnesia, aggressiveness and psychoaffective deficiency.